Detailed Description

Allow the user to convert between two different units after specifying a conversion factor. This class will also automatically combine two conversion factors to create a new unit conversion (but it cannot combine more than two).

Conversions are performed by the convert() function and the conversion factors must be specified beforehand using the insert_cache() function.

If the GNU units command is not in the local path, the user may modify units_cmd_string to specify the full pathname. One can also modify units_cmd_string to specify a different units.dat file.

Idea for Future:: A remove_cache() and in_cache() function to test to see if a conversion is currently in the cache.

Example:

convert_units cu;
cu.insert_cache("in","cm",2.54);
cout << "12 in is " << cu.convert("in","cm",12.0) << " cm. " << endl;

An object of this type is created by o2scl_settings (of type lib_settings_class) for several unit conversions used internally in O2scl .

Note: Combining two conversions allows for some surprising apparent contradictions from numerical precision errors. If there are two matching unit conversion pairs which give the same requested conversion factor, then one can arrange a situation where the same conversion factor is reported with slightly different values after adding a related conversion to the table. One way to fix this is to force the class not to combine two conversions by setting combine_two_conv to false. Alternatively, one can ensure that no combination is necessary by manually adding the desired combination conversion to the cache after it is first computed.

Idea for Future:: Ideally, a real C++ API for the GNU units command would be better.

Definition at line 88 of file convert_units.h.

Classes
struct	unit_t
	The type for caching unit conversions. More...

Public Member Functions
virtual double	convert (std::string from, std::string to, double val)
	Return the value `val` after converting using units `from` and `to`.

virtual int	convert_ret (std::string from, std::string to, double val, double &converted)
	Return the value `val` after converting using units `from` and `to`, returning a non-zero value on failure.

void	insert_cache (std::string from, std::string to, double conv)
	Manually insert a unit conversion into the cache.

void	remove_cache (std::string from, std::string to)
	Manually remove a unit conversion into the cache.

void	print_cache ()
	Print the present unit cache to std::cout.

void	make_units_dat (std::string fname, bool c_1=false, bool hbar_1=false, bool K_1=false)
	Make a GNU `units.dat` file from the GSL constants. More...

Public Attributes
int	verbose
	Verbosity (default 0)

bool	use_gnu_units
	If true, use a system call to units to derive new conversions (default true) More...

bool	err_on_fail
	If true, throw an exception when a conversion fails (default true)

bool	combine_two_conv
	If true, allow combinations of two conversions (default true)

std::string	units_cmd_string
	Command string to call units (default "units")

Protected Types
typedef std::map< std::string, unit_t, std::greater< std::string > >::iterator	miter
	The iterator type.

Protected Attributes
std::map< std::string, unit_t, std::greater< std::string > >	mcache
	The cache where unit conversions are stored.

Member Function Documentation

◆ make_units_dat()

void o2scl::convert_units::make_units_dat	(	std::string	fname,
		bool	c_1 = `false`,
		bool	hbar_1 = `false`,
		bool	K_1 = `false`
	)

If c_1 is true, then the second is defined in terms of meters so that the speed of light is unitless. If hbar_1 is true, then the kilogram is defined in terms of s/m^2 so that $\hbar$ is unitless.

Note: Not all of the GSL constants or the canonical GNU units conversions are given here.

Member Data Documentation

◆ use_gnu_units

bool o2scl::convert_units::use_gnu_units

This also requires popen().

Definition at line 122 of file convert_units.h.

The documentation for this class was generated from the following file:

/home/awsteiner/wcs/o2scl/src/base/convert_units.h

Detailed Description

Classes

Public Member Functions

Public Attributes

Protected Types

Protected Attributes

Member Function Documentation

◆ make_units_dat()

Member Data Documentation

◆ use_gnu_units